[afro-nets] 10th International Women and Health Meeting (3)

[Onyinye Ndubuisi <dnyildon@yahoo.com>]

10th International Women and Health Meeting (3)
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Day 2

The workshop on integrating sexual & Reproductive Rights in AIDS
and Prevention and treatment strategies involved an informal and
lively discussions by Tanya Baker Lee, Gabriela Cano Azcarraga
and Maria Casagas all from Youth coalition. We broke into groups
to thrash out issues of cost treatment and health care infra-
structure.

Further we also noted in another workshop that was and conflict
not good for women health, as women get raped as a result of
some of this problems. A woman called Adlim tells her story of a
woman who was gang raped and the case was taken to the Dutch
courts and it has actually taken ten years to consider her ap-
plication for asylum and also called for better facilities for
migrant women and counselling services.

Seventy-six years old Barroquillo also breaks down while talking
about how she and two other girls were captured as a 14 years
old by Japanese soldiers in 1943 and kept them as sex slaves for
four months. This has affected her whole life, she says ­ she
kept her body poorly, lost her appetite and her self-confidence.
She never told her husband who died in 1995, when another woman
shared her story and since then she decided to open and since
then in 2000 she has been part of a survivor group offering
therapy, healing and a safe space to move forward.

During the separate platforms for Reproductive and Sexual health
rights, Pantomime mums from Philippines, advocating breast feed-
ing, men?s responsibility and shared parenting and jostling a
somewhat sleepy gathering into wakefulness. ?It needs to be okay
for us to say Yes or No to having a child? declared Alibhe
Smyth. During her impassioned presentation on connecting Body
politics: Feminism, Reproduction and lesbian sexuality. Sonia
Correa said ?we needed to improve our knowledge and understand-
ing of the linkages between reproductive and sexual health
rights, poverty and inequality?. Manisha Gupte asks that why are
women seen as only reproductive beings and men are sexual; she
further asks every time a women has an orgasm she doesn?t re-
lease over whereas every time a man has one he releases one, but
I also need to acknowledge men as reproductive beings and women
as sexual beings and not separate sexual and reproductive rights
from women.

Another workshop on health services provision: experiences of
immigrant, refuges, prisoners and other special women chaired by
Loretta Ross, discussed issue such as elderly women, the right
of refugees and the special needs of women in commercial sex
work. Loretta Ross, says ?you cant understand the politics of
population control in the United States if you don?t understand
how white supremacy functions, some people are encouraged to re-
produce while others are discouraged, she commented scathingly
?when you saw who was saved and who was not saved, it is amazing
that the government could get to Iraq in 24 hours and can?t get
to New Orleans in 5 days.?

And during the family violence and health workshop, Dorothy Ake-
nova spoke spontaneously on her work on heterosexual, lesbian
and bisexual couples, she said that men between the ages of 25
to 50 when asked where is the pleasure in sex, didn?t know much
about women needs, bodies or sexuality; they had no idea of
women anatomy when it came to sexual pleasure, so they have a
project called A-Z of sexual positions and many things besides,
and she said over a period of time there is less fighting and
more seduction.

Young people met after workshops and discussed issues to their
participation, lack of physical space for meetings and discus-
sions. Even though the organizers provided us space, it was in
the exhibition hall where it is impossible to sit and discuss
and reflect on issues discussed in the plenary and the question
is are the organizers encouraging the young people to engage in
the outcome and follow up? And the space we have got for young
people to use is an hour caucus time the evening before the clo-
sure of the conference. Is one hour enough for us? Well it is
not.

We will keep updating you.

Thank you,

Onyinye Belinda Ndubuisi
Development partnership International (DPI)
mailto:dnyildon@yahoo.com

Sonali Mohapatra
Network of Asia Pacific Youth (NAPY)